Tuesdays with Torbee

Iowa fans were gifted a second-straight goose egg courtesy of a Brian Ferentz-led offense on New Year’s Day – an inevitable exclamation point marking the end of an ignominious era.

Now, expecting offensive excellence while hamstrung with a backup quarterback and missing your two best pass catchers may be unfair. Even mighty Ohio State managed a mere three points against Missouri -an SEC squad roughly on par with the Tennessee team that manhandled Iowa – faced with the same constraints. And that is with a second and third string littered with four-star recruits, not Fordham-bound castoffs and two-stars like much of Iowa’s bench. Still, some semblance of mere competence should have been attainable. Instead, Iowa’s catastrophic offense not only failed to do its part, it actively assisted Tennessee’s domination via backbreaking turnovers from the quarterback position.

The infuriating thing about the Citrus Bowl performance is that the Iowa staff remained stubbornly committed to a failing strategy long after it was blindingly obvious it was hopeless and the game out of hand. I am under no illusions that freshman quarterback Marco Lainez would have magically led Iowa to victory had he started or been inserted after Deacon Hill handed points to Tennessee on multiple occasions. It is the fact that it wasn’t even a consideration from the Ferentzian brain trust to pull the struggling Hill when everyone else in the stadium and watching on TV could see he had zero chance of success.

This season we’ve seen running backs and receivers benched for fumbles and drops. We’ve seen an excellent kicker pulled after in-game hiccups. Yet a quarterback whose season statistics ended at a 48.6% completion percentage, eight interceptions against only five touchdowns, five lost fumbles and whose poor play in the bowl gifted the Volunteers 21 points is beyond head-scratching and borderline malpractice.

Lainez coming in and immediately scrambling for first downs, making plays with his legs and not gifting the ball to the defense shined the spotlight on that coaching malpractice, which we as Iowa fans have to pray ends when a new offensive coordinator takes control. The worry, of course, is those decisions were more of Kirk’s doing than Brian’s – but I think there is a chance the new coordinator will insist on a level of autonomy Kirk’s son was either unwilling to ask for or deemed unworthy to be afforded.

Objectively, a 10-win season is good by historical Hawkeye standards and possessing three of four traveling trophies (minus the unfairly abducted pig held hostage in Minneapolis) is satisfying.  However, being outscored 92-0 by the three ranked teams Iowa played seriously diminishes the accomplishment and dampens fan enthusiasm.

The hope now is that forced-change results in tangible progress. 

Despite the sour taste the Big 10 Championship and bowl games left in fans’ mouths, I submit there are grounds for optimism. 

Two of the three phases necessary for football success are well-stocked with talented players and in great coaching hands. High school recruiting is on the uptick and Kirk Ferentz has proven surprisingly willing and adept at using the transfer portal to shore up weak spots on the roster. 

This makes the pending offensive coordinator hire arguably the most important since Ferentz’s first construction of a staff in 1998. Get it right, and the opportunity is there for a legacy-defining final run. Get it wrong and fan apathy and anger is likely to bring the era to an unhappy conclusion. This may sound overly dramatic, but I believe it to be true. 

I’m also not afraid of the end of Big 10 divisions or the expansion of the conference with new West Coast blood. Iowa’s program is solid enough to be a player in that more challenging environment, provided its leaders continue to adapt and evolve.

Some will push back and say the aging and stubborn Kirk Ferentz is unwilling or unable to adapt and evolve. I would push back and say that’s isn’t true – it is just that he will do it on his own timetable, which feels glacial to Iowa’s “what have you done for me lately” fanbase. 

In other words, brace yourselves for another microwave reference at Kirk’s season-ending press conference. And hope he brings in a slow-food loving sous chef to cook up a functional offense.

Follow me on Twitter @ToryBrecht and the 12 Saturdays Podcast @12Saturdays.